Complaints Procedure

Our complaints policy

BM Solicitors are committed to providing a high-quality standard of legal service to all of our clients. If something goes wrong, we need you to tell us about it as soon as possible so we can try and rectify it. This will help us to deal with any issues and also improve our standards.

Our complaints procedure

If you have a complaint, please contact us in writing as soon as possible with the all the details. Our designated Complaints Officer is Ms Helen Shona Barriga.

What will happen next?

1. We will send you a letter acknowledging safe receipt of your complaint within three days of us receiving the complaint, we will, when responding, ensure of enclosing a copy of this procedure for your information and records.
2. We will then proceed to start to investigate your complaint. This will normally involve passing your complaint to our Complaints Officer and Client Care director, Ms Helen Shona Barriga. Ms Barriga will then proceed to conduct a full and detailed review of your complaint and all of your file. Ms Barriga will speak to the Solicitor who acts / acted for you.
3. We will record your complaint in our central register and open a separate file for your complaint. We will do this within 5 working days of receiving your written complaint letter.
4. Once the investigations of your complaint are concluded, Ms Barriga will send you a detailed and substantive full written response to your complaint. This letter will confirm the outcome of her investigation and include a number of suggestions for resolving your complaint. You will receive a response to your complaint within 21 days of sending you our acknowledgement letter.
5. Once you are in receipt of our response to your complaint, if you are still unhappy with her response and the outcome of her investigation, please confirm this to us in writing, you will then be invited to a meeting (by telephone or in person depending on your choice) to discuss your complaint further and hopefully achieve a successful resolution to your complaint. This will happen within 14 days of us sending you the response letter.
6. Once the meeting or telephone conversation has taken place, Ms Barriga will write to you again, within 7 days of the meeting / telephone call taking place, to confirm what took place and the issues discussed and any final solutions we have agreed with you (if any) and what (if any) remains outstanding and unresolved.
7. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied or if no solutions were achieved following our meeting / telephone call, you should contact us again in writing within 7 days of receiving our further response letter requesting a final review and setting your reasons for requesting this.
8. Ms Barriga will then write to you again,within 28 days of receiving your request for a further review, confirming our final position on your complaint, and explaining our full reasons.
9. In certain circumstances we may need to change the above timescales in the event of the Complaints Officer being on annual leave etc and if this is the case with regards to your complaint we will write to you to let you know and explain our reasons for the change in the timescales.
10. If you are still not satisfied at the conclusion of our Complaints process and you believe the complaint has not been resolved to your satisfaction, then you can ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider it. You can contact them on the details below: Visit: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
    Call: 0300 555 0333 between 9.00 to 17.00
    Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
    Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ

Any complaint to the Legal Ombudsman must be made within six months after the firm's final response to a complaint and no more than six years from the date of act/omission; or no more than three years from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.